1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a disc apparatus which drives an optical disc (for example, CD-R/RW, DVD-R/-RW/RAM/+R/+RW, etc.), as a recording medium which records a large amount of information, in information equipment such as various computer systems, and in particular, to a disc apparatus which facilitates the insertion and ejection of discs.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, a disc apparatus built in a personal computer (hereinafter referred to as ‘PC’) or the like has a disc tray for loading a disc that is configured to advance and retreat. Also, a disc loaded in the disc tray is driven in a main body of the disc apparatus to record or reproduce information.
On the other hand, as another type of disc apparatus that does not utilize a disc tray, a so-called slot-in type disc apparatus is also frequently employed. This type of disc apparatus is suitable to make PCs slim and small. Since the slot-in type disc apparatus does not utilize a disc tray in loading or unloading a disc to or from a main body of the apparatus, when an operator inserts over half of a disc into a slot, a loading mechanism of the apparatus body is then operated to load the disc automatically.
In the slot-in type disc apparatus, the slot is covered with felt for preventing entering of dust that may affect the recording or reproducing of data when entered from the slot. The felts are attached to, for example, the inside of a front panel (front bezel) provided with the slot, and are fixed to the upper and lower portions of the slot respectively. Also, a disc inserted through the slot passes through a long horizontal slit for disc-insertion formed in the middle of the felt, and enters the inside of the apparatus. When a disc passes through the horizontal slit for disc-insertion, the felt is deformed to open and the disc passes through the horizontal slit in contact with the felt. That is, the disc pushes the felt open through the horizontal slit to pass through the slit. After the passage of the disc, the deformed felt is returned to the original state to cover the slot again.
Among conventional felts attached to the front bezel of the slot-in type disc apparatus, some are attached to front bezels having a plurality of vertical slits orthogonal to the horizontal slit as well as the horizontal slit. The vertical slits are formed to make the felt pushed over easily in the disc moving direction so as to reduce the drag resistance between the disc and the felt when the disc pushes the horizontal slit open to pass therethrough (for example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application No. 2002-123995).